Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts – Einstein

The days are long but the decades are short…

Successful people gather “most” of the facts and then make a quick decision. Unsuccessful people make slow decisions and then change their minds quickly.

“All streams flow to the sea because it is lower than they are. humility gives it its power. if you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them. if you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.”

“A leader is best
When people barely know he exists
Of a good leader, who talks little,
When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
They will say, “We did this ourselves.”

“Give evil nothing to oppose
and it will disappear by itself.”

“Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.”

“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will respect you.”

“The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth.”

“A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live.”

“Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?”

“If you understand others you are smart.
If you understand yourself you are illuminated.
If you overcome others you are powerful.
If you overcome yourself you have strength.
If you know how to be satisfied you are rich.
If you can act with vigor, you have a will.
If you don’t lose your objectives you can be long-lasting.
If you die without loss, you are eternal.”

“The flame that burns Twice as bright burns half as long.”

“Stop thinking, and end your problems.
What difference between yes and no?
What difference between success and failure?
Must you value what others value,
avoid what others avoid?
How ridiculous!

Other people are excited,
as though they were at a parade.
I alone don’t care,
I alone am expressionless,
like an infant before it can smile.

Other people have what they need;
I alone possess nothing.
I alone drift about,
like someone without a home.
I am like an idiot, my mind is so empty.

Other people are bright;
I alone am dark.
Other people are sharp;
I alone am dull.
Other people have purpose;
I alone don’t know.
I drift like a wave on the ocean,
I blow as aimless as the wind.

I am different from ordinary people.
I drink from the Great Mother’s breasts.”

“If you try to change it, you will ruin it. Try to hold it, and you will lose it.”

“The wise man is one who, knows, what he does not know.”

“To understand the limitation of things, desire them.”

“Love… Embracing Tao, you become embraced.
Supple, breathing gently, you become reborn.
Clearing your vision, you become clear.
Nurturing your beloved, you become impartial.
Opening your heart, you become accepted.
Accepting the World, you embrace Tao.
Bearing and nurturing,
Creating but not owning,
Giving without demanding,
Controlling without authority,
This is love.”

“If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.”

“When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad.”

“Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self. When we don’t see the self as self, what do we have to fear?”

“When there is no desire, all things are at peace.”

“Countless words count less than the silent balance between yin and yang”

“True words aren’t eloquent;
eloquent words aren’t true.
Wise men don’t need to prove their point;
men who need to prove their point aren’t wise.

The Master has no possessions.
The more he does for others,
the happier he is.
The more he gives to others,
the wealthier he is.”

“Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.”

“My teachings are easy to understand
and easy to put into practice.
Yet your intellect will never grasp them,
and if you try to practice them,you’ll fail.

My teachings are older than the world.
How can you grasp their meaning?

If you want to know me,
Look inside your heart.”

“Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.”

“Trying to understand is like straining through muddy water. Have the patience to wait! Be still and allow the mud to settle.”

This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.

The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That’s all there ever is.

Wherever you are, be there totally.

I’m here to tell you that the path to peace is right there, when you want to get away.

When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it.

If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life. That is very serious!

Practice is this life, and realization is this life, and this life is revealed right here and now.

If you want to change the world, start with the next person who comes to you in need.

My experience is that the teachers we need most are the people we’re living with right now.

Guilt, regret, resentment, sadness & all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past & not enough presence.

Throughout this life, you can never be certain of living long enough to take another breath.

Awareness is the greatest agent for change.

When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.

The art of living… is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.

The intuitive recognition of the instant, thus reality… is the highest act of wisdom.

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.

And when they played they really played. And when they worked they really worked.

Preparing food is not just about yourself and others. It is about everything!

Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves

Heaven and earth and I are of the same root, The ten-thousand things and I are of one substance.

It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.

Heaven & earth & I are of the same root. Ten thousand things & I are of one substance.

One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world.

The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.

I don’t let go of concepts – I meet them with understanding. Then they let go of me.

The Zen expression Kill the Buddha! means to kill any concept of the Buddha as something apart from oneself.

When you hear that all beings are Buddha, don’t fall into the error of thinking there’s more than one Buddha.

The self divides into ten billion distinct illuminating spirits. Distinguish these without falling into names and classifications.

To study Buddhism is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be awakened by all things.

Melting our attachment to self is the most powerful medication for bringing mental and emotional imbalances in check.

Have good trust in yourself … not in the One that you think you should be, but in the One that you are.

My finger can point to the moon, but my finger is not the moon. You don’t have to become my finger, nor do you have to worship my finger. You have to forget my finger, and look at where it is pointing.

To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you cannot eat.

Zen has no business with ideas.

What is important is not the right doctrine but the attainment of the true experience. It is giving up believing in belief.

The menu is not the meal.

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

People sleep, and when they die they wake.

Today, you can decide to walk in freedom. You can choose to walk differently. You can walk as a free person, enjoying every step.

When an ordinary man attains knowledge, he is a sage; when a sage attains understanding, he is an ordinary man.

If we don’t occupy ourself with everything, then peaceful mind will have nowhere to abide.

Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.

The Buddha talked about saving all beings from delusion, not converting them to a new religion.

Let your mind wander in the pure and simple. Be one with the infinite. Let all things take their course.

Let go over a cliff, die completely, and then come back to life — after that you cannot be deceived.

Each step along the Buddha’s path to happiness requires practising mindfulness until it becomes part of your daily life.

Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. True power is within & available to you now.

Body and mind dropped off.

It’s not about approving or liking, but just being able to allow the world to be the way it is without resenting, hating, or judging it.

Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong.

It all depends on you. You can go on sleeping forever, you can wake up right this moment.

To understand everything is to forgive everything

Any enlightenment which requires to be authenticated, certified, recognized, congratulated, is false, or at least incomplete.

Self-realization is effortless. What you are trying to find is what you already are.

When the mind is perfectly clear, what is is what we want.

The way out of life & death is not some special technique; essential thing is to penetrate to the root of life & death.

The aim of spiritual life is to awaken a joyful freedom, a benevolent and compassionate heart in spite of everything.

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.

Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.

To follow the path, look to the master, follow the master, walk with the master, see through the master, become the master.

Learning Zen is a phenomenon of gold & dung. Before you learn it, it’s like gold; after you learn it, it’s like dung.

You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.

At the still-point in the center of the circle one can see the infinite in all things.

In the scenery of spring, nothing is better, nothing worse; the flowering branches are; some long, some short.

There is no mistake in nature.

Still water has no mind to receive the image of the migrating geese.

All the things that truly matter, beauty, love, creativity, joy and inner peace arise from beyond the mind.

No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

Why is the tao so valuable? Because it is everywhere, and everyone can use it. This is why those who seek will find.

Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish your opinions.

Any experience of reality is indescribable!

No thought, no reflection, no analysis, no cultivation, no intention; let it settle itself.

You’re never given more pain than you can handle. You never, ever get more than you can take.

As a bee gathering nectar does not harm or disturb the color & fragrance of the flower; so do the wise move through the world.

Zazen is an activity that is an extension of the universe. Zazen is not the life of an individual, it’s the universe that’s breathing.

The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.

Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.

Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.

Tao in the world is like a river flowing home to the sea.

Try to imagine what it will be like to go to sleep and never wake up… now try to imagine what it was like to wake up having never gone to sleep.

Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?

The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.

The resistance to the unpleasant situation is the root of suffering.

For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.

If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.

Life isn’t as serious as the mind makes it out to be.

Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

The greatest effort is not concerned with results.

When I feel like dancing, I dance. I don’t care if anyone else is dancing or if everyone else is laughing at me. I dance.

A follower of the way has neither form nor shape, neither root nor trunk; nor dwelling place; like a fish leaping in the water.

I cannot tell you any spiritual truth that you don’t know already. All I can do is remind you of what you have forgotten.

Every being is in search of truth, but small fears go on preventing you.

All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.

I have lived with several Zen masters — all of them cats.

All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?

The mind is everything. What you think you become.

It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.

There is nothing so disobedient as an undisciplined mind, and there is nothing so obedient as a disciplined mind.

Nothing can harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded.

To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others.

You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself.

The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

Purity or impurity depends on oneself. No one can purify another.

However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

Three things cannot hide for long: the Moon, the Sun and the Truth.

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.

Those who have failed to work toward the truth have missed the purpose of living.

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.

If you are facing in the right direction, all you need to do is keep on walking.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

In the end these things matter most: How well did you love? How fully did you live? How deeply did you let go?

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

If you truly loved yourself, you could never hurt another.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills.

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.

However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.

To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.

To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.

The mind is everything. What you think you become.

Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it

You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.

Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.

When you dig a well, there’s no sign of water until you reach it, only rocks and dirt to move out of the way. You have removed enough; soon the pure water will flow.

Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.

You only lose what you cling to.

Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.

It is better to travel well than to arrive.

Doubt everything. Find your own light.

The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.

Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.

A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again; but if he is peaceful, loving and fearless then he is in truth called wise.

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.

In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.

Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.

There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed.

All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?

Purity or impurity depends on oneself, No one can purify another.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

True love is born from understanding.

To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others

You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger.

There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.

If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.

Pain is certain, suffering is optional.

Long is the night to him who is awake; long is a mile to him who is tired; long is life to the foolish who do not know the true law.

To understand everything is to forgive everything

An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.

When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky

Patience is key. Remember: A jug fills drop by drop.

Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker.

Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little.

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.

In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.

The darkest night is ignorance

I never see what has been done, I only see what remains to be done.

Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have.